


Legacies Of Old

by gagamilkovich



Category: Shameless (US), Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Friendship, M/M, Not completely accurate, Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 04:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18380579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gagamilkovich/pseuds/gagamilkovich
Summary: Retelling of the Sith Inquisitor's events on Korriban in the game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not entirely accurate to the game, certain elements of the story were changed to tell a different story.





	1. Admission

**Author's Note:**

> Hey darlings! My name is Lucas and I'm writing a crossover fic of one of my favorite games ever (Star Wars: The Old Republic) and my favorite TV couple of all time (Ian Gallagher / Mickey Milkovich.) This is a work in progress, I don't know how many chapters I'm going to do, it all depends on my mood. Anyways, enjoy the fic!

The Imperial shuttle dropped out of hyperspace just above an orange-red colored dustball of a planet. 

Korriban-- the former heart of the Sith Empire--now, just a desolate tomb world full of nothing but moldering artifacts, Sith Scholars and Sorcerers scrabbling for any advantage those things might grant them, and the Sith Academy. Now that he saw it, Mickey thought even less of it. 

Why the Empire had spent resources recapturing this place would remain a mystery to him.

Other than Mickey, there were 5 other Hopeful’s aboard the transport: Ffon, Kory, Balek, Wydr, and Gerr.

Ffon was a pure-blood Sith who was all too full of himself which rubbed Mickey in more wrong ways than right.

Gerr was a tall, masculine boy with the most beautiful pair of hazel eyes Mickey had ever laid eyes on. He seemed a little dim-witted but was cheerful, despite where they were headed.

Kory was a small, frail little girl. Her fiery red hair and turquoise eyes made her look anything but Sith, but power radiated from her, at least Mickey could sense it.

And finally, Balek and Wydr, the brothers with brown hair darker than the soil of Kashyyyk. Those two were physically shaking with fear, which amused Mickey slightly.

The shuttle had been a welcome silence since leaving the fleet. The other Acolytes she traveled with seemed nervous beyond words which suited him just fine. He had no desire for small-talk. Now that Korriban was in sight and growing larger in their minds by the second as they made their approach, the other Acolytes became restless. They ooh-ed and ahh-ed, one trembled, another audibly crying. Mickey simply sat stoic and unmoved. 

Just another ship full of fools traveling to a whole planet full of even bigger ones.

The shuttle made its approach to one of the less crumbly temples and touched down. The cabin door swung with a blast of hot, dry air. The smell of heat and decay assaulted the new acolytes, and dust was already collecting on the exit ramp.

The Sith Hopefuls were directed into a room, if it could even be called such, as it only had walls on three sides. The rest was open to the harsh Korriban elements. Mickey felt the sweat collecting in the small of his back, but he wasn’t uncomfortable. After all, he had grown used to worse conditions in the mines he used to work in. The rest of the acolytes looked worse for the wear. They gaped at their surroundings, wide-eyed, sweat beading on their dumb-struck faces. He was sure one of them had soiled themselves. 

They’d be dead by sundown most likely. A lovely meal for the K'lor'slugs.

Mickey fell behind the rest of the group, examining the intricate carvings of each statue that lined the walls surrounding the hangar bay. 

Not bad, he had seen better though. 

He pranced into the bay nonchalantly and was greeted coldly by a sinister looking man.

“Ah, the last one to arrive is finally here. I hope you don’t think you’re special,” he said, his lips curling into a sneer. 

The man was undeniably Sith; it wasn’t just in his bearing but in the palpable aura of dark strength that surrounded him. He was obviously used to intimidating those around him with his presence alone… though his armored robes and the lightsaber at his belt certainly contributed. He was human, with brunette hair, silver eyes and a little beard perched at the end of his chin like a caterpillar. There was a diamond-shaped red marking – possibly a tattoo – on his forehead, the lower point of which curled around beneath his right eye.

“It would be a shame if freedom went to your head- or if you somehow got the idea you didn’t need to pass your trials to become Sith,” the man continued, the derision clear in his voice. There was such vitriol in the way he spoke to Mickey. that the other acolytes got another all-too-familiar look on their collected faces: that of people who were glad they weren’t the targets of it. Mickey had seen it on the faces of his former slaves many times.

Mickey hardly seemed intimidated by the man, his eyes rolling back as the man spat at him.

He scoffed, “I know I need to pass the trials. And I will,” he said cockily.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” the retorted. “I am Overseer Harkun, and Darth Soréya has tasked me with sorting through you refuse to find one worthy of being her apprentice, and I intend to do just that. You will prove yourselves to me or die trying.”

“Now, now, Harkun, don’t get all sentimental on us now, we’ve only just met!” Mickey said, speaking with deliberate disdain for Harkun’s venom. He’d learned from previous experiences with harsh masters that showing you weren’t bothered by them was the best way to intimidate them. It wouldn’t be any different with this man, it was working pretty well judging from the venomous glare he kept shooting to him as he spoke. 

Some of the other acolytes visibly winced, but Mickey couldn’t bother to care; if they wanted to walk on eggshells around Harkun, terrified of what he might do to them, that was their business.

The Overseer knew he was being mocked, though, and replied coldly, “I won’t.”

Then he turned back to the other acolytes, and they all stepped back, their fear of Harkun so intense that Mickey could practically feel it pouring off them. But Harkun made no move to punish them for Mickey’s insolence, and merely said, “Now the rest of you gutter trash already know your trial. Get going while I bring our latecomer up to speed.”

Four of them, including Balek and Wydr, seemed grateful for the chance to escape Harkun’s wrath, and immediately walked away. Kory, however, held back, looking at Mickey with concern.

“Watch your back, friend. And don’t worry. It’ll be alright. Harkun can’t kill us all,” she said, attempting to reassure him. She probably thought he was actually as frightened of Harkun as she was.

Well, maybe he was afraid, only a little though. It wouldn’t be enough to stop him though.

“We can take him. I’ll attack from the front, you attack from behind, and we’ll see how he fares,” Mickey suggested in a low voice. It was actually a joke, but it was said in such a deadly serious tone of voice that the girl didn’t realize it. Her face blanched, and she stepped back from him a little, apparently almost as frightened of him as she was of Harkun.

That suited Mickey just fine. He was starting to develop a feel for how he wanted to deal with his fellow acolytes, and other Sith as well. And the Empire as a whole. Clearly, the fact that he had once been a slave meant he would always be regarded with contempt. It didn’t surprise him, not in the slightest, but it was somewhat tiresome. It bothered him a little, too, because he was learning enough about his own strength to know that he was powerful enough to complete the trials and become Sith.

“Uh… yeah. Looks like you can handle yourself,” the girl said, hurrying away.

“Are you quite done, slave?” Harkun asked. “Now, here’s your trial: there’s a hermit named Spindrall who lives in the tomb of Ajunta Pall in the Valley of the Dark Lords. Spindrall is a lunatic, but Darth Soréya sees him as some kind of prophet. Once you find him, he will test you.”

“Sounds fun,” Mickey commented dryly, and even he wasn’t sure how much of that was sarcasm, and how much was a genuine statement of how he felt. A real challenge for his abilities would be useful, definitely; Balek and Wydr hadn’t really been able to keep up with him despite the fact they both had a significant physical advantage over him. But on the other hand, how much fun could crawling around in a tomb really be? Yes, he would learn a lot, but he wasn’t sure it would actually be enjoyable.

But he was hardly going to let Harkun know that.

“There, you know your task. Don’t keep Spindrall waiting, slave,” Harkun spat, and Mickey took that as the dismissal it was. It seemed that regardless of his status as an acolyte, Harkun was never going to see him as anything but a slave.

Prickling a little with indignation at Harkun’s derision, Mickey exited the landing platform and headed into the spaceport, following the route the other acolytes had taken. He went up a flight of steps, then turned a corner and climbed another, before stepping out through a door and onto another raised platform. He slowed and then stopped. His eyes were immediately drawn to the huge pyramid at the far end of the valley, several kilometers away from his current position, looming over the whole valley and casting a vast shadow. The sun was perfectly framed behind the tip of the pyramid in a way that had to be deliberate; this temple must have been built on that spot for that very purpose.

The sides of the valley were lined with large statues of ancient Sith, and a number of red and black banners bearing the Imperial crest hung from the cliffs. These banners were a celebration of Imperial might and dominance over Korriban. It marked this world as truly being a part of the Empire in a way that Mickey simply wasn’t.

Mickey pulled his eyes away from the furthest reaches of the valley and focused instead on the area immediately in front of him. That had to be his highest priority right now: figuring out where he was supposed to go and locating the hermit Spindrall.

The bottom of the valley was filled with ruins, as he had seen when he’d first landed. Many of them appeared to have collapsed entirely, and Mickey hoped none of these were the tomb of Ajunta Pall, as excavating them would be quite bothersome. He had no idea where Ajunta Pall’s tomb was – actually, he didn’t really know who Ajunta Pall was. He was obviously a Sith important enough to warrant a special tomb – but a bit of exploration would hopefully lead him in the right direction.

A set of stairs took Mickey down from the platform, and he soon realized that the immediate area was entirely enclosed by the cliffs. He stepped out onto the red sand, it only took a few seconds for him to locate the footprints left behind by the other acolytes, and with no better idea of where to go in mind, he followed them. 

It didn’t take long for Mickey to find what had to be the right tomb. The trail of footprints descended deeper into the Valley of the Dark Lords, leading right towards one of the nearest ruins, which was somewhat larger and more impressive than the smaller ones surrounding it. 

This had to be the tomb of Ajunta Pall.


	2. Infestation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A K'lor'slug infestation in the Tomb of Ajunta Pall requires Mickey's immediate attention.

The humid air inside the tomb of Ajunta Pall had a thick, musty odor, and the stone walls were cracked and crumbling. In some places, they started to lean forward, on the verge of collapse, with only large metal struts used to prop them up. 

Mickey could almost feel the weight of rock above him.

Knowing that the whole tomb was only prevented from caving in by the Empire’s determination to preserve it seemed to heighten the sense of danger.

There was definitely something oppressive about the place, too. A kind of dark energy so palpable that it made the hairs on Mickey’s arms rise. He could sense that this mission – this quest – wouldn’t be as simple as walking down a few corridors and exploring the rooms until he found Spindrall. 

This was a trial, which by definition meant it was supposed to be difficult. It would hardly be a valid test if everyone could succeed, would it? So he moved with caution, half expecting some kind of ambush.

The other acolytes were nowhere in sight, and there were no more footprints to follow, only small specs of sand. But how large could the tomb possibly be? He didn’t need a trail left by the other acolytes. He could explore the tomb and find Spindrall on his own.

Or so he thought.

Mickey didn’t get far from the entrance before reaching a barricade made of metal crates, behind which a few heavily armored Imperial Soldiers were crouching. Another one was lying nearby, obviously injured and laying in a pool of his own blood; his armor had been torn open by something with large claws. Mickey could recognize an animal attack when he saw one. 

The commanding officer saw Mickey looking them over, and he approached. “Excuse me, Acolyte. I’m Sergeant Cormun, Fifth Infantry Company, Korriban Regiment. Can I—may I speak with you?” he asked, hesitating a little as he made the request. He was an older man with a weathered face and the look of an officer who’d seen and done a lot of things over the years. His caution in addressing Mickey seemed out of place.

Mickey considered the man’s request for a moment and then nodded. “Alright. Make it quick, sergeant,” he said. It wouldn’t do any harm to see what the man wanted. Being treated with respect by men who wouldn’t have thought twice about killing him was still disconcerting, but it certainly made him more willing to listen than if the man had simply started barking orders. Mickey would not be commanded… but he would concede to being persuaded.

“Of course. You’re one of the slaves Harkun brought in on the last transport, right? Here to prove yourself to the bloodthirsty overseers?” Cormun asked, his tone of voice suggesting he had some experience of dealing with Sith… and of seeing Acolytes entering the tombs for their trials.

“Prove myself or die, apparently,” Mickey commented dryly.  
“Well, here’s your chance to not only show off for the overseers, but start building ties to the Imperial military, as well,” Cormun said.

There was no arguing with that logic. While he was sure that Harkun would be annoyed if he was delayed because he stopped to help out these soldiers, Mickey already knew nothing he did was going to impress the overseer. And having someone in the military owing him a favor might could be useful in the near future.

“So whaddya have in mind?” Mickey asked.

“I’m here commanding a hard target mission to exterminate the K’lor’slugs in this tomb. They’re… horrific creatures. Mouths bigger than your head. I’ve lost three squads of good men fighting them. They come in packs— and they just,” Cormum hesitated. 

“They’ll swallow a man whole.”

“Sounds like you need a new strategy, then,” Mickey replied, thinking it a little odd that the man needed a former slave to explain that to him.

Well, more accurately, a Sith Acolyte.

Just one with very little experience of the galaxy.

Yet Cormun did seem to be looking to him for… something.

“Exactly. Look, I’ve identified the enemy’s weak spot, but it’s not easy to get at. The damn K’lor’slugs breed so fast there’s no way to wipe them out conventionally. So we started targeting their egg chambers. They went insane. We managed to get explosives to all of the egg chambers, but the K’lor’slugs were all over us before we could detonate them,” Cormun explained. “We can’t do it without you. You have a tactical advantage my soldiers don’t: The Force. That makes you worth a dozen normal men.”

Mickey spent a moment considering this, recognizing the attempt at flattery for what it was. It felt faintly ridiculous, a group of muscular and experienced soldiers looking to him to get something done. Just walking around in Korriban’s heavy gravity felt like hard work, and even this short walk from the spaceport to the entrance of the tomb had left him breathing heavily from the exertion. 

Yet there was something nice about being seen as useful, even essential to a mission’s success.

“Oh alright then,” he conceded, sounding like the man’s words had succeeded in winning him over. “I guess I can take a look.”

It wasn’t that the respect and flattery had worked, or even that he felt particularly predisposed to being helpful. It was a combination of having already decided the Fifth Infantry Company might be useful in the future, and something else inside him thought setting off the explosives might be fun. But Mickey wasn’t going to sound too enthusiastic about it; he wasn’t a slave anymore, and he sure as hell didn’t want anyone to start getting the idea that they could order him around.

Cormun handed him a datapad detailing the process for setting off the charges, which Mickey stared at blankly for several moments, wondering how best to explain that he could barely read a word of it. “I don’t have time to study this. Just show me one of the charges so I can see how it needs to be done,” he said, deciding that a show of impatience was better than creating a reputation for being the Sith that couldn’t read.

The soldier nodded his agreement and retrieved a spare bomb from one of the nearby crates. “This button, then this button, and then these two to set the countdown. You’ll want at least thirty seconds delay to give yourself time to get clear of the explosion. And don’t underestimate those K’lor’slugs, sir. They’re… they’re smarter than they look,” Cormun warned as Mickey went through a little gap in the barricade, heading deeper into the tomb.

He did have to wonder where the other acolytes were. Had Cormun enlisted their help as well? The man hadn’t mentioned any of the others, so perhaps not. Mickey didn’t know any of them, except Balek and Wydr, who both wanted to go home more than anything else. If the others were similar, maybe that made them less interested in helping out the Fifth Infantry. Maybe they wished only to survive the trials. Mickey’s ambition was stronger than that; he didn’t plan on merely surviving. He was going to excel, whether Harkun liked it or not. Being anything less than the most powerful acolyte just felt wrong to him.

And that meant helping the soldiers with their K’lor’slug problem.

Mickey’s progress through the tomb was uneventful… for all of a few minutes. And then came the scuttling sound, like many legs moving through the darkness. He sensed the creature’s approach a fraction of a second before it pounced, and he ducked, allowing the thing to leap right over him. Then he twisted around to face it, igniting his training saber.

The K’lor’slug had a long, serpentine body, a vast amount of legs, and a massive circular mouth lined with rows of fangs. It had no discernible eyes, which immediately ruined Mickey’s initial plan of aiming for them first.

Cormun had called them ‘horrific’, but… Mickey thought they were kinda cute.

Still, he had to admit, K’lor’slugs were pretty intimidating.

The beast snarled and lunged at him again.

Mickey dodged sideways, and swung his training saber at the nearest limb, some kind of arm that ended with a vicious looking claw. The blade wasn’t really suitable for cutting, so instead of severing the K’lor’slug’s arm, it left a burned score in the beast’s exoskeleton. But the K’lor’slug screeched in pain and the limb fell limp.  
Mickey swiped at it several more times with the saber, striking at as many legs as he could. It lurched sideways, snapping its jaws at him. But dodging the now incapacitated K’lor’slug was easy, and Mickey leaped backward, widening the gap between him and the animal. Although the beast was indeed smarter than it looked, it wasn’t intelligent enough to compare to fighting with a human. The K’lor’slug lacked any subtlety whatsoever, and Mickey found predicting its movements easier than he had expected.

But he couldn’t kill the thing with just the training saber. The whole point of the weapon was its non-lethality.

The solution was obvious.

Mickey raised his hand and a small bolt of lightning left his fingertips. The K’lor’slug collapsed into a heap of tangled limbs, and green drool seeped out of its open mouth.

Before Mickey had the chance to enjoy his victory, however, several more K’lor’slugs came out of the walls and swarmed towards him. Three of them were the same size as the one he’d just killed, but the fourth was a lot larger.

So these little ones were just juveniles.

Wonderful.

With four K’lor’slugs scuttling closer, Mickey couldn’t afford to stand still. So he leaped to the side to avoid the talons of the largest K’lor’slug. Then swiped at one of the smaller ones with his training saber. The force of the blow was enough to knock it over, and it rolled onto its back, wriggling its many legs. With his arm extended after swinging the blade, Mickey couldn’t avoid the claw of one of the other small ones, which sliced across his forearm. He yelped and pulled away, narrowly dodging a bite from the largest one.

“Back off!” he snarled at them angrily. He was cornered and surrounded. He wanted them to just go away already! 

And then they did.

Well, it was more like they were thrown backward, pushed away from him by sheer Force power. The biggest one was hurled against the wall, before falling to the floor, stunned by the impact. So was one of the smaller ones. The other two little ones flew further with no solid objects to get in the way.

Mickey pressed his advantage, first blasting the largest one with Force Lightning before it could get up and attack him again. A second, weaker shock was sent at a smaller K’lor’slug that had recovered from the surge of Force Power and started to charge at him again.

Now there was just one K’lor’slug left.

The last remaining K’lor’slug was scuttling towards him, dragging several legs that were bent at the wrong angle. That made it slow. Mickey didn’t hesitate to deliver a final bolt of lightning. The K’lor’slug tumbled to the ground.

And Mickey stood in the middle of the dead K’lor’slugs, panting from the exertion. Korriban’s heavy gravity made all that leaping and dodging and saber-slashing a lot of hard work. It was probably a good thing electricity wasn’t affected by gravity, or he’d have really been in trouble.

That struck him as funny, and he chuckled to himself, leaning against the wall of the tomb to allow himself a minute to catch his breath.

Once he was ready, he moved on again, pressing deeper into the tomb. He passed a dead K’lor’slug, noting the pockmarks in its armor; it had been killed by Sergeant Cormun or one of his men. A different dead K’lor’slug looked as though it had been blasted with lightning, so one of Mickey’s fellow acolytes was undoubtedly responsible for that. And then, in a puddle of brownish-green fluid, he found the almost completely digested remains of a person; little fragments of bones and a few stringy strips of flesh were all that remained of them.

So that’s what happens to someone after they were swallowed by a K’lor’slug.

Mickey was about to move on, having made the decision to not allow himself to be eaten, when he spotted a device nearby. Dropped by the man that had been eaten, or perhaps one of his companions? Mickey picked it up and studied it, turning it over in his hands as he tried to figure out what it was. In the process, he pressed one of the buttons, and a small blue hologram appeared, a recording of the dead soldiers’ orders.

It detailed Imperial Edict 936: Mercenaries were looting the tomb, stealing artifacts, and deadly force had been authorized to recover the artifacts. And to also teach the mercenaries a lesson for daring to steal things that rightfully belonged to the Sith.

And there was hazard pay, which could be claimed from Sergeant Rikel.

Mickey pocketed the device, thinking that if he happened to run into these mercenaries while he was here, then at the very least retrieving those artifacts would be worthwhile. Could he claim that hazard pay if he did the dead man’s job? Hazard pay sounded like it might be a lot of credits, which he’d never had before. Nor artifacts, for that matter.

Definitely worth considering once he’d found Spindrall. 

And blown up the K’lor’slug egg chambers.

This was turning out to be quite the adventure for Mickey.

He had to admit he was having fun. Sure it was physically taxing, and there definitely was a slight worry that something down here would kill him. But he’d never been able to do anything like this before. The risk to his life just made it more exhilarating.

He felt so alive.

Like he never had before. A single day of this was better than all the years of slavery. If he died here, it would be because of his own failure, rather than the selfish whims of his owner.

There was a side chamber a little way ahead, and Mickey approached it cautiously, peering around the wall to see if he could see inside without being noticed. He was pretty sure there were more K’lor’slugs around here, and he didn’t want to be ambushed again.

Sure enough, there was a particularly large and fat K’lor’slug in the chamber; and since it was surrounded by what looked like several hundred eggs, Mickey assumed it was a breeding female. He watched a little longer, trying to pick out the locations of the explosives that had supposedly already been placed there. The lighting wasn’t very good, but after a few moments he could make out the angular shapes sitting amongst the spherical eggs. More than that, he could feel that they were there, as though the near darkness didn’t matter to The Force. Large canisters were spread out across the egg chamber, all connected to a single control box; the shapes were too angular to be K’lor’slug eggs. These were what Mickey was aiming for.

But first, he had to deal with the mother K’lor’slug. It was safe to assume she wouldn’t be happy if he just strolled in there and blew up her offspring.

At least it was only one K’lor’slug this time.

Probably.

Mickey crept around the corner, moving slowly into the egg chamber. He didn’t think he’d be able to take the K’lor’slug by surprise, but if he could just attack her before she attacked him, it would definitely make things easier. She had her back to him, and her entire body convulsed, pushing another egg out of the end of her tail. Without hesitation, Mickey blasted her in the back with as large a barrage of lightning as he could call upon. The female K’lor’slug crumpled to the floor, dead before she even knew what was happening.

Waiting a few moments to ensure there weren’t any more K’lor’slugs coming, Mickey went into the chamber. He stepped around the corpse of the mother slug, and studied the control box for the explosives, comparing it to the device Cormun had shown him. He set what he believed was a countdown of thirty seconds by pressing the timer button several times until the display showed what looked like a suitably high number, and then pressed the button to activate it.

And then he fled the egg chamber at a run. Although he knew the explosion wouldn’t be enough to collapse the whole tomb – because that would kind of defeat the point of targeting only the K’lor’slugs, wouldn’t it? – he still didn’t want to get caught in the blast. Only once he was back out in the main corridor did he turn and look back. Just because he wanted to watch the detonation.

It did not disappoint. With a loud boom that shook the entire tomb, the canisters exploded, bursting into bright flames that consumed the eggs surrounding them. The fire spread from egg to egg, as if they were coated in something flammable. 

Mickey couldn’t help but grin. Explosives might just be his new favorite toy.

His enjoyment of the destruction didn’t last long. The force of the explosion in the egg chamber had summoned all the K’lor’slugs who heard it, and they were scuttling rapidly towards him. Mickey readied his weapon again and prepared to send a bolt of lightning into their midst. There were a lot of them, though, much more than the group of juveniles he’d killed earlier.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to fight alone. There were heavy footsteps coming from behind him, and Mickey glanced over his shoulder to see Sergeant Cormun running towards him, followed by other members of the Fifth Infantry Company. They opened fire on the mass of angry K’lor’slugs, and emboldened by the backup, Mickey joined in, using his lightning in place of blaster bolts.

One large K’lor’slug managed to push its way forward, ignoring the rain of blaster fire. It raised its massive talons to tear at one of Cormun’s men. Reacting instinctively, Mickey gave the creature a massive push with the Force, sending it slamming into the wall. It was briefly stunned, and lay on its side, its limbs twitching but otherwise not moving. The soldiers took the chance to fire their weapons into its exposed underbelly.

Mickey and the Fifth Infantry continued to mow down the herd of K’lor’slugs and soon enough, the swarm was all dead. Sergeant Cormun approached Mickey and said, “Outstanding, sir! I heard the explosions when you set off the charges and guessed the K’lor’slugs would go nuts. There are a few more egg chambers deeper in the tombs, so we’ll follow behind you and clear out the adults after you destroy the eggs. We’ll have this infestation under control by sundown.”

The other soldiers seemed pleased, and a few of them smiled at Mickey, a gesture that he returned a little uncertainly. He had never before been surrounded by so many people who approved of him, but apparently saving one man’s life had been enough to prove that he was.

Pleased that everything had gone well so far, and feeling confident as a result, Mickey decided to continue as he had begun. “Alright, then. I’ll find the remaining egg chambers, and then we’ll destroy the K’lor’slugs together,” he said, emphasizing the fact that this was a team effort.

Mickey had had enough rest to catch his breath, and he set off once again, heading deeper into the tomb in search of the next egg chamber. It required a certain amount of trust, that the soldiers would indeed follow a short distance behind and help him kill the adult K’lor’slugs. But he knew it was in their best interests too;   
Without him, they couldn’t succeed at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm superrrr proud of this work, it took me a long time to write because I kept starting over and over because I don't know how to start things sksksksk. But anyways, shoot me a follow on twitter @gagamilkovich and stay tuned for more chapters! xx


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